[MCR] Skiing around Bow Lake

Myself and Chris Miller just finished up the field portion of a Yamnuska AST2 course. We spent three days exploring the common areas around Bow Lake. We were lucky enough to see new snow throughout the course and with that a slight swing in avalanche hazard. For the most part what we saw corresponded to the Parks Bulletin. The slight exception would be this afternoon. The incoming cold front gave us new snow, falling temps and of course moderate winds at ridgeline. The soft wind slabs built up fast and were reactive to ski cuts. We stuck to small terrain at treeline, and used the usual travel precautions (supported slopes, no shallow areas and disciplined ski lines). While these slabs were small, they will be growing in the next while. Caution on larger features, especially in the alpine.

Here is a brief run down of the areas and what we saw:

1) Crowfoot Glades: snow tests below the ski slopes (in the moraines) offered moderate to hard results with most tests, but there was a Rutschblock that failed while cutting (RB1). We skied the same terrain that I suspect every other skier in the range had. Lots of tracks.

2)Pulpit Peak: All snow tests were in the high end of moderate to hard. The 230cm HS inspired confidence. The skiing was very good. We skied the main southern slopes with confidence.

3)The first drainage north of Numtijah Lodge (west side of the highway): This was as close as we came to the alpine. 20cm new last night and moderate winds this morning quickly changed our plans of fantastic powder skiing to inspecting the trees on small slopes. No big lines for us. While inviting, the main bowl seemed unreasonable at the moment. The comments in the first paragraph were all from today.

Overall, very good conditions for the Rockies. Lets hope it stays this way.....

--
Matt Mueller

AG/ASG
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures

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